Opening Weekend
Our Time on Earth
Sunday, February 18, 2024 from 10 am—5 pm
Know before you go
In-person event
Location: Around the museum
Included with admission
Events take place on both Saturday and Sunday unless noted.
Celebrate the opening of the multisensory exhibition Our Time on Earth. Learn about the creation of this ambitious show from visiting curators from London’s Barbican Centre and contribute to a community artwork with Cuban-American climate artist Xavier Cortada. Check out Rare’s interactive pop-up exhibition “Changing the Climate Culture” plus a vibrant student art installation, “The Great Marsh and Climate Change.” Explore efforts underway to address climate change today and reflect on humanity’s power to shape our collective future.
Pop-Up Exhibition | Changing the Climate Culture (Saturday only)
10 am–4 pm | Main Atrium
Explore Rare’s “Changing the Climate Culture” pop-up exhibition. These traveling interactive displays harness behavioral science to guide visitors toward adopting key behaviors related to food choices, energy consumption, transportation and support of the natural world.
Installation | The Great Marsh and Climate Change
10 am–5 pm | Groups Hub
Investigate the remarkable living web of the North Shore’s Great Marsh through an art and science project created by River Valley Charter School students with art teacher Lucinda Cathcart, science teacher Rebecca Schwer and silk painting artist Susan Quateman. On view through Friday, February 23.
Conversation with the Curators | Our Time On Earth (Saturday only)
11 am–12 pm | Morse Auditorium
Same-day tickets required. Tickets at the Admissions and Information desks.
Join PEM curators and visiting curators from London’s Barbican Centre and FranklinTill for a behind-the-scenes conversation about Our Time On Earth. Ask questions about the artworks and learn how artists, designers and activists are working together to preserve biodiversity and mitigate climate change.
Participatory Project | Letters to the Future
10 am–5 pm | Main Atrium
Write a message to someone living in the future! Based on an ongoing project by artist Xavier Cortada, this activity invites you to imagine the future generations of people and animals who will inherit the planet.
Drop-In Art Making | Adopt-a-species Upcycling Clothing
1–3 pm Saturday, 11 am–3 pm Sunday | Create Space Studios
Bring in a well-worn piece of clothing and give it a new look with a print of artist Xavier Cortada’s animal drawings from the Endangered World Project.
Drop-In Art Making | Adopt-a-Species Rock Painting
1–3 pm Saturday, 11 am–3 pm Sunday | Create Space Studios
Paint a rock with the coordinates of a threatened or endangered species and take it home as a reminder of our commitment to protect life on Earth.
Our Time on Earth is produced and curated by the Barbican with guest curators FranklinTill and co-produced by Musée de la civilisation, Québec City, Canada. This exhibition is made possible by Carolyn and Peter S. Lynch and The Lynch Foundation. We thank James B. and Mary Lou Hawkes, Chip and Susan Robie, and Timothy T. Hilton as supporters of the Exhibition Innovation Fund. We also recognize the generosity of the East India Marine Associates of the Peabody Essex Museum.
About our collaborators
Other events that may interest you
February School Vacation Week
Caring for Creatures and Climate
Week of February 19, 2024
DROP-IN ART ACTIVITY
Earth Vows: Mixed Media Wall Hangings
Weekends and Mondays | Select dates in February